Doc Heath here; your friendly Neighborhood NeuroMechanic!
Spooky season is a great time for the young AND the young at heart to PRACTICE “FEAR”. That’s right! Practicing experiencing difficult emotions when we know we’re in a safe environment can help us program our minds to understand emotions - even the difficult ones - are not harmful to us.
Go ahead and enter the creaky doors of that Haunted House. Watch that spooky movie and let the CHILLS run up and down your spine. Decorate your home and yard with ghosts and monsters and witches and zombies; later imagining them all coming to life in the dark of the night.
Guess what will happen when you experience that FEAR? N-O-T-H-I-N-G.
Fear can never harm you though it can be a difficult emotion.
Use this Half-Way to Halloween to create a space for fear that YOU control.
Feel the fear and THEN pay attention to your THINKING. After all, it is your THINKING that is CREATING the fear in the first place.
Change your thinking; change your feelings. Master your thinking; master your life.
TherapyBites Podcast NOW AVAILABLE on your favorite pod player!
It’s all about the Psychology of EveryDay Life & Relationships.
SIX BRAND NEW episodes:
E1. Bonus Intro Episode
E2. Scary Stories from the DARK RECESSES Beneath the Therapy Couch
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The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!
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Hey, TBALr's, Sarah here! Adventure-seeker, book-worm, & associate to Doc Heath, your friendly neighborhood NeuroMechanic!
It's definitely one of those "Oh Jinkies!" moments! You're sitting outside your therapist's office awaiting your appointment. Then, you remember... you had homework! Oh, no! What will my therapist think? You scramble to write down as much as you can before COUCH TIME!
Sound familiar? I know we’ve definitely seen it; even done it ourselves!
During YOUR next session, put a homework reminder in your phone. Make scheduling that reminder a part of the therapy session. Also, share this plan with your therapist! Make it part of your treatment plan.
Great clinicians will help YOU develop a healthier MINDSET by reviewing your homework with you DURING each session.
Don't forget YOUR homework! Keep moving FORWARD!
REMEMBER: TherapyBites YouTube LIVE Watch Party! 6pm CST, October 15, 2022
Hey, TBALr’s, Sarah here! Adventure-seeker, book-worm, & associate to Doc Heath, your friendly neighborhood NeuroMechanic!
Listening to a patient’s perspective change & their thought processes become healthier is one of the MOST rewarding things about being a therapist.
In order for therapy to work, practice OUTSIDE of therapy is ESSENTIAL. Changing old patterns of thinking takes time AND a lot of hard work. It’s worth it!
Basic practice includes the ABC Thought Records to sort out how our THOUGHTS create our EMOTIONS:
A - Event/Situation
B - Belief
C - Emotions/Feelings
Remember, even when we are NOT going through a difficult situation, we should practice Accurate, Realistic Thinking (A.R.T.).
We want the “A.R.T. Life” to become HABIT but, without practice, that will not happen!
Keep up the good work & keep living the A.R.T. Life everyday!
Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared
The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!
Hey, TBALr's, Sarah here! Adventure-seeker, book-worm, & associate to Doc Heath, your friendly Neighborhood NeuroMechanic!
Imagine this: You're scrolling through social media and you see it: A social media post claiming to be a PSYCHOLOGY FACT.
But, there is a problem! The post says something to the effect of: "If it doesn't bring you joy, cut it out of your life!"
Seems like a good idea, but think again! If we cut everything out of our lives that didn't bring us joy, we would eventually cut ourselves out of the bulk of our own lives! This kind of thinking encourages us to catastrophize difficult events, situations, circumstances, thoughts, and emotions. If we aren't happy, there must be something wrong, right? Nope! Humans are engineered to have emotions; even difficult emotions. None are bad for us and none are even good for us! We have emotions because we are meant to have emotions.
The next time you see some social media pseudo-psychological clap trap, use Phil Swift's approach in this meme:
Don't let it cause "a lot of damage," slap some accurate, realistic thoughts on it!
Hey, TBALr's, Sarah here! Adventure-seeker, book-worm, & associate to Doc Heath, your friendly neighborhood NeuroMechanic!
Replacing Inaccurate, Unrealistic Thoughts (IUTy's) with Accurate, Realistic Thoughts (ARTy's) takes practice, practice, practice! When we have been thinking IUTy's for a long time, we have to be diligent to replace them with ARTy's. It may seem like a boxing match, but the more we practice Accurate, Realistic Thoughts, the more ARTy will win the day, EM-BIG-EN-ING YOUR LIFE!!!
Keep fighting the good fight and let ARTy be the champion of your brain!
TherapyBites Podcast NOW AVAILABLE on your favorite pod player!
It’s all about the Psychology of EveryDay Life & Relationships.
BRAND NEW episodes + BONUS:
E8. Ghosts, Ghouls, & Scary Faces: The Psychology of Halloween (p. 1)
E7. Myths, Monsters, & Scary Stress
E6. Spirits, Unsafe Spaces, & Other Tales of Terror